Re: [papercreters] Pulp production

Thanks Spaceman!  That rocks!  <HUGE grin>

 

So the challenge is to find a material you can line the plywood with that will hold the papercrete in place and allow the water to drain out quickly . . . Mesh held in place by one of those draining floor mats maybe . . . The plywood will hold the mesh from bulging and the draining mat will allow the water to pour out unrestricted . . . Maybe concrete lath would do the same job . . . ?  The mesh will keep the papercrete from integrating into the mat or lath.

 

ElfN

----- Original Message -----

From: Spaceman

 

ElfNori wrote:

Most excellent! 

 

Question . . . why did you use plywood on one side?  Why not mesh on both?  Or something pourous on both?

Because! It just evolved that way, sorta. The dome was already in place with a 4' gap below it, supported by a ring of bus seats. The mesh was wired on the inside, and the plywood was easier than fabricating a support frame for outside mesh. The mesh side was not very smooth, with the mesh just wired into place around the edges. It sagged and bulged so the wall is way thicker than 14" in places. The plywood side was a sort of slip form, a 4x4 plywood wired into place and then braced with pipes staked into the ground. This gave a smooth outside and a "sculptured" inside surface. This was only for the Molly (ringwall), the top portion of the dome will be slip formed against the papercrete panels that are already there.

If/when I do it again, I'll go ahead and fabricate frames covered with mesh as a two sided slip form.

 

2nd question . . . how much did it shrink and in which direction?  Do you have pictures?

I didn't measure the shrinkage, but of course there was some in all directions. I posted a picture at the time, http://www.nurl.us/7x3 and a flash slideshow at http://www.nurl.us/7x4. The flash slideshow is in 3D Anaglyph format, so you need red/cyan glasses to see it properly. The blue tubes sticking through the plywood are part of the solar hydronic heating system that is embedded in the 2" concrete slab that floats on 10" of papercrete.

 

3rd question . . . did you pre-drain the mix before you bucketed it into your form?

No, wet mix right out of the no-tow mixer. I used various trash including some bamboo, along with mostly newspapers. The bamboo didn't pulp but sure added lots of long fiber reinforcement.

 

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